Last updated Feb 11, 2018 24 0It was one of the most anticipated Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) debuts in recent times and everybody at the arena knew a special talent was on showcase.

It was the formal announcement of the arrival unto the scene of El-Kanemi’s teenage prodigy, Nura Mohammed.

Rangers would go on to beat El-Kanemi 1-0 in Enugu thanks to an 82nd minute strike by Kelvin Itoya but it was the El-Kanemi’s number 32 with a cultured left foot that caught the eyes for most part of the game.

When you are besieged by home fans for selfies after a game, you must have done something special. The fact is that most of them didn’t know anything about him prior to the game but the ‘small boy’ (as they termed him) kept them on their toes all through the game.

Whenever he was with the ball, the fans screamed; “Hold that small boy o! Hold that small boy o!!” That buttressed the impact he had on the game.

On a day Rangers struggled to string passes together, El-Kanemi’s possession-based game and Mohammed’s directness at goal kept the Rangers faithful on the edge.

El-Kanemi’s Razak Aliu, Sunday Anthony and Samuel Mathias bossed the middle of the park while Mohammed and sidekick Antonio Desousa made life difficult for Rangers defenders.

And what’s special about Mohammed? He has modelled his game after Arjen Robben, Lionel Messi and all the modern game’s attack-minded left footers. So he loves cutting in from the right and shooting with his left. Similarly, he doesn’t just wait for supplies. He could drop deeper to pull the strings himself.

Much has been said about the Internally Distressed People (IDP) camp resident who found succour in football via El-Kanemi; featured for El-Kanemi Feeders at the NPFL Under-15 Future Promises; forced his way into the main team during the pre-season; caught the eyes of national team selectors during a pre-season tournament and made the CHAN squad. All these before even kicking a ball professionally.

Was this all a hype? There had been no such case in the recent past. A player making the senior national team squad to a major tournament while awaiting his NPFL debut. On the evidence of this performance, the likes of Imama Amapakabo and Salisu Yusuf, who vested so much confidence in him should take a bow.

With just 12 minutes played, Mohammed’s footworks sufficed to set him clear at goal but his goal-bound effort was blocked by Semiu Liadi.

In the 30th minute, he popped up on the left flank, left Brownbraye Okpus sprawling on the floor, got to the byline but his cross was gathered by keeper Femi Thomas.

He replicated this move in the 45th minute. But this time, his inch-perfect delivery found Desousa whose effort was cleared off the line.

If he wanted to cross the ball, he operated from the left and if he desired to aim at goal, he switched to the right. In the 52nd minute, he cut in from the right, opened his body, but his well-curled effort scratched the side net.

Rangers were guilty of forcing issues most of the time and Elkanemi was the more settled on the ball. But Itoya reacted quickest during a goalmouth melee to grab the match winner. Little wonder some term football the cruel game.

So entertaining was the El-Kanemi display that the home fans at some point responded with rounds of applause.

Rangers also had their fair share of chances. For instance in the 16th minute, Solomon Okpako missed from close range with El-Kanemi keeper, Adamu Abubakar already displaced.

But there was a moment of brilliance and audacity in the 38th minute, when El-Kanemi’s Mathias saw Thomas off his line, hit the ball from the centre but Thomas tracked back to save the goal-bound effort. In the 72nd minute, Sunday Anthony’s shot was saved on a second attempt by Thomas.

That summed up the thriller that was served at ‘The Cathedral.’

_________________The difficulties of statistical thinking describes a puzzling limitation of our mind: our excessive confidence in what we believe we know, and our apparent inability to acknowledge the full extent of our ignorance and the uncertainty of the world we live in. We are prone to overestimate how much we understand about the world and to underestimate the role of chance in events -- Daniel Kahneman (2011), Winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics Winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics

"It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is. If the--if he--if 'is' means is and never has been, that is not--that is one thing. If it means there is none, that was a completely true statement....Now, if someone had asked me on that day, are you having any kind of sexual relations with Ms. Lewinsky, that is, asked me a question in the present tense, I would have said no. And it would have been completely true."

When you are besieged by home fans for selfies after a game, you must have done something special.

Does the fact that home fans could mingle with opoosing players happily like this show that our league has started to mature?Although if the "small boy" had scored the winner wuld they have been so magnanimous??

This is how it used to be in the old days. Hopefully the league is getting back to recapturing its past glory.

When you are besieged by home fans for selfies after a game, you must have done something special.

Does the fact that home fans could mingle with opoosing players happily like this show that our league has started to mature?Although if the "small boy" had scored the winner wuld they have been so magnanimous??

This is how it used to be in the old days. Hopefully the league is getting back to recapturing its past glory.

The LMC and NPFL should market this guy. Use him to attract fans to the games. Billboards all over the country... use him for promos.

_________________I pledge to Nigeria my country To be faithful, loyal and honest To serve Nigeria with all my strength To defend her unity and uphold her honor and glory So help me God.

When you are besieged by home fans for selfies after a game, you must have done something special.

Does the fact that home fans could mingle with opoosing players happily like this show that our league has started to mature?Although if the "small boy" had scored the winner wuld they have been so magnanimous??

This is how it used to be in the old days. Hopefully the league is getting back to recapturing its past glory.

The LMC and NPFL should market this guy. Use him to attract fans to the games. Billboards all over the country... use him for promos.

Based on this report of a performance against lowly Rangers? Everybody excels against Rangers.

...again, with the age of cell phone cameras everywhere Nigerians tend to report news without video or images, but when it comes to gory picture of accidents they will flood the whole place. Thanks for the reading.

When you are besieged by home fans for selfies after a game, you must have done something special.

Does the fact that home fans could mingle with opoosing players happily like this show that our league has started to mature?Although if the "small boy" had scored the winner wuld they have been so magnanimous??

This is how it used to be in the old days. Hopefully the league is getting back to recapturing its past glory.

The LMC and NPFL should market this guy. Use him to attract fans to the games. Billboards all over the country... use him for promos.

Based on this report of a performance against lowly Rangers? Everybody excels against Rangers.

When you are besieged by home fans for selfies after a game, you must have done something special.

Does the fact that home fans could mingle with opoosing players happily like this show that our league has started to mature?Although if the "small boy" had scored the winner wuld they have been so magnanimous??

This is how it used to be in the old days. Hopefully the league is getting back to recapturing its past glory.

The LMC and NPFL should market this guy. Use him to attract fans to the games. Billboards all over the country... use him for promos.

Based on this report of a performance against lowly Rangers? Everybody excels against Rangers.

...again, with the age of cell phone cameras everywhere Nigerians tend to report news without video or images, but when it comes to gory picture of accidents they will flood the whole place. Thanks for the reading.

When you are besieged by home fans for selfies after a game, you must have done something special.

Does the fact that home fans could mingle with opoosing players happily like this show that our league has started to mature?Although if the "small boy" had scored the winner wuld they have been so magnanimous??

This is how it used to be in the old days. Hopefully the league is getting back to recapturing its past glory.

The LMC and NPFL should market this guy. Use him to attract fans to the games. Billboards all over the country... use him for promos.

Based on this report of a performance against lowly Rangers? Everybody excels against Rangers.